Michael,

How do you deal with the various toxins that are found around your average house, especially the front yard? I'm thinking of exhaust and leaks from vehicles, neighbors spraying xxx-icide, whatever rain may pick up from a house itself (e.g. asphalt roof).

This has been the main thing stopping me from planting edibles directly around my house.


thanks.

When we moved here a neighbor told us not to plant our veggie garden until after the field was sprayed behind us because the roundup would kill It all. We put up a 6 foot privacy fence and I planted shrubs ad small trees that would get tall yet stay narrow against the fence and encircling the lot to help stop any wind drift. This helped slow weed seeds that blew in the wind also.
I had soil brought in to regraded the lot so no water would collect from adjacent properties. I use raised beds also. I did make the mistake early on of using treated lumber for some beds so I bough aluminum roof flashing and covered the treated wood.
I pestered the city until I finally got the ditch along the road dug out so that water no longer stands from off the road.

I keep a nice cover of wood chips on paths and throughout the gardens. I get a lot of mushrooms growing in it and I have read that they will detox soil.

The field behind us is now houses so I don't have those chemicals against my lot now but I will be watching this tread for other steps to take.

i also put a "green fence" toward the street. Dense planting of bird of paradis and Agave, lots of mulch. I am working on a major water catch system from road run off which will go through mulch and reeds - designed to sink in, not to be used directly...

matt hogan wrote:I'm thinking of exhaust and leaks from vehicles, neighbors spraying xxx-icide, whatever rain may pick up from a house itself (e.g. asphalt roof).

This has been the main thing stopping me from planting edibles directly around my house.
thanks.

I would not worry about exhaust unless you neighbor leaves the car running for long periods of time if they do then I would build a berm of hedge to help block that from coming over into your house. If you have wind that usually comes from one direction you could use that to help push the exhaust away from your house.

With runoff find the worst areas and dig a ditch to hold the water cover the bottom with rocks and line it with plants that you will not eat, that way you are stopping the flow and using the water but keeping the heavy metals and oil away from the plants that you will be eating.

Matt

Good one. See my post in 'The abundant urban waste stream - how to go from pollution to production' thread here in the urban forum - I outline a simple but effective method for cleaning runoff with fungi. If you are looking for a fast screen I would suggest a fast growing tall clump grass like Giant Silvergrass (Miscanathus floridulus). The grass will also provide year round habitat for beneficial critters to help balance your edible landscape.

That is a great answer. Thanks for that.

Here is the link to the other thread Michael mentioned above:
http://www.permies.com/t/32011/urban/abundant-urban-waste-stream-pollution